In a frame switching system, frames (also known as packets) can be received from plurality of source ports (where each port is connected to a computer work-station or another sub-network) and are directed to plurality of destination ports according to the destination addresses embedded in the frames. In conventional frame switches incoming serial data streams are buffered and converted into parallel data (e.g., in byte or 4-byte word size units). The parallel data for each data stream is then forwarded to one or more destination port by the "shared bus method" or the "shared memory method." The parallel data approach leads to complex circuit structures and very large internal data busses and/or large shared memory arrays.